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+/- for the Patern o' Abuse at Pedo State

Okay, thats a little "Salty" as the kids say. Refs have to be better than that - and ultimately prevented NU from winning.

PlayerMinutesNU PtsPSU PtsRaw+/-Player+/-Net+/-Box Pts
Barnhizer367277-5+6.96+5.9615.85
Ciaravino92414+10+2.65+4.655.40
Nicholson265048+2+2.99+3.397.30
Windham213943-4+2.79+1.995.55
Mullins183934+5-2.29-1.293.00
Hunger132534-9-2.06-3.860.30
Leach244955-6-3.34-4.543.10
Berry142836-8-3.50-5.10-0.90
Martinelli397479-5-4.20-5.204.40

Barnhizer was the best player on the court for Northwestern and played another excellent game.
Martinelli was only 5 of 13 from the floor and turned the ball over 3 times against 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
Leach only took 5 shots, making 2, but turned it over a painful 5 times against 3 steals, 3 assists and 2 rebounds.
Ty Berry played a mere 14 minutes, got tagged with lame fouls and went 1 for 6 from the floor, with only an assist and a rebound to show for his effort.

Into the gap stepped KJ Windham and Angelo Ciaravino. Both played well. Ciaravino played really well. Limited to 9 minutes by the zebras he put up 5 shots, making 3 of them, including 2 from outside the arc. He added a steal and a rebound. His +10 is noteworthy. That was achieved primarily with Nicholson, Martinelli and Mullins in the first half, when NU turned a 12-6 deficit into a 21-16 lead.

KJ Windham displayed his ball-handling skills, recording 2 assists against 1 turnover in 20.5 minutes. This is the area where he helps NU most, but he also knocked down 3 of 5 shots, inluding 2 of 4 from distance - matching Ciaravino's shooting numbers exactly.

Justin Mullins made 3 of 5 shots, but had no rebounds at all, which is rather bizarre for him.

Tough loss for the Wildcats, but, importantly, Windham and Ciaravino showed they are ready to provide Collins more options on the court. The team really struggled with Luke Hunger playing the 5 against Penn State - we gave up 34 points in 13.4 minutes. Its possible that we might see more of Martinelli at the 5 with Ciaravino or Mullins essentially subbing in for Hunger.

The Rant Board

I am pissed about the reffing too but if you watch the first 5 mins of each half again, there is no question the Cats fouled more than Penn State.

Such hand check fouls usually police themselves by conference season. Players hand check less and refs relax. In the Penn State game, neither happened so we got what we all witnessed.

Cats’ guards’ D had a big role in making the game what it ended up being.
Right - there was one ref who wanted to call the game differently than the mainstream refs. His obsession was those little hand moves that our guys use to slow the opponent down ever so slightly. Nicholson got called for one of those on Baldwin. My reaction was "If thats a foul then everybody will foul out of every game."

Bardo was pointing this out correctly. The refs are calling every little hand grab. Back off the point guard - make him shoot a jumper.
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Collins Post Game Press Conference

Who knows for real, but in the clip above Collins says specifically that he hasn't seen the tape and just has to trust that the three guys at the monitor got it right.
Thats a mature response in the moment - if you haven't watched the tape why risk looking foolish.
But I'm sure when he watched the tape it made him angry.
In my opinion, he should find an opportunity or 3 to tell the media "We got the short end of that call. Basket should have counted. It cost us the game."
To a rational human, it makes no sense that Barnhizer's putback would be disallowed.
Whistle came after or just as he released the shot.

I would bet my life that Coach K gets that call.
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Yes Virginia, With 5 Wins the Cats would be bowling

From an article:
“To determine a replacement for Marshall, it came down to sifting through a ranking of NCAA APR scores of teams that finished the 2024 season with a 5-7 record. Top of the list were the likes of Cincinnati, Wisconsin and Air Force, but the committee ultimately landed on Louisiana Tech, who landed 16th out of 17 teams among the group. “

Almost certainly it was proximity to the bowl’s Shreveport, LA location. The rules about 5-7 teams probably only apply to the initial selection process. This way the bowl got to choose whomever they felt was going to fill the most seats on 2 weeks notice.

Thanks for finding that. I guess we will never know if Northwestern would have been the replacement with a 5 win season. Now don't shake my faith in Santa too.

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Above, These clever kids set their iPad timer to catch Santa while they were asleep.

Below, Gift opening time:

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Exploring with the Christmas gifted Magical Adventure Globe with its 600 custom videos which magically appear with a touch on the globe:

Link to Video of Exploring with the Magical Adventure Globe:

Login to view embedded media
Concurrently taken Christmas Day Photos:

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The Rant Board

Cats had 38 points in the paint on about 46% shooting. It wasn't 'only a few times'. They did get a few calls, including a technical that should probably have been a flagrant. But if the refs had called PSU's defense around the arc as inventively as they called the Cats, we'd have had a similar number of free throws.
I am pissed about the reffing too but if you watch the first 5 mins of each half again, there is no question the Cats fouled more than Penn State.

Such hand check fouls usually police themselves by conference season. Players hand check less and refs relax. In the Penn State game, neither happened so we got what we all witnessed.

Cats’ guards’ D had a big role in making the game what it ended up being.
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